The Beating
by AlexJoForever
Summary: Alex has the wake call of his life when Jo turns up at his house in very bad condition, worse than he had initially thought. I'm terrible at summaries so just read it and find out. This is my take of the ending of 9x22.
1. Chapter 1

**The Beating**

* * *

Alex was just leaving the hospital with Avery, when he saw Peckwell and Jo fighting. Alex didn't think anything of it though, just a normal couple having a row at each other, relationships wouldn't be what they are now without a fight or two.  
" Whats that all about?" Avery said, concerned "Do you want to do something?"  
"No, just leave them." Alex said, although, inside he had been very concerned about what they were fighting about, concerned about what was going to happen, concerned about Jo. He decided to leave though because of what Jo had said to him earlier...  
" Stay out of my business, ok!" She had said and stormed of without another word. Although her words hadn't stopped him from thinking about what they were fighting about.  
An hour or so later...  
Alex and Avery were sitting at Joe's drinking beer after their long day at work, Alex keep looking over to the group of interns playing darts to see if Jo had turned up.  
" I'm ganna hit the sack," Alex said because he had lost hope that Jo would turn up,  
" have fun with Ste..." He stopped though, looking up to see that Avery had already gone over to to talk to Stephanie.  
"Ok then, cya." Alex said looking at Avery smiling when Stephanie got a bulls eye. Alex walk up the stairs and out of the bar, he realised that it was dark now so he got into his car and headed home.  
Alex arrived home and was walking to the door when he saw someone sitting on the bench beside the door, it was Jo.  
" Oh man, you're killing me here, I'm trying to leave you alone, I'm trying to get out of your freakin life but you're everywhere! And now you show up to tell me the same thing!" Alex said angrily at Jo, who had not yet looked up at him. " Well guess what..." Alex stopped suddenly when Jo looked up at him, she had a black and a split lip. Alex's heart just skipped a beat, he couldn't understand how someone could hit her, she had such beauty and was so loveable.  
" Can I stay here, please." Jo asked, trying to hold back her tears, Alex was speechless, he just stared at her, picturing in his head what had happened. He didn't need to ask who had doen this to her, he knew, he was so angry he thought that he was going to kill someone.  
" Alex?" Jo was a little worried about him now, he looked stunned.  
" Of course," he said " I'll help you inside." He went over to her and carried her inside. She winced with pain. He was still in shock a little bit about the situation," Why would she come to me if she was so angry at him?" he was thinking.  
After they were inside, she went to go sit on the couch, while he went straight to the kitchen to get a bag of frozen peas.  
" Sorry, its all I've got." he said while at her concerned.  
" Its fine," she said " I didn't know where else to go." she had said trying to explain. She put the peas to her wounded face and shivered at how cold it was. Alex had obviously noticed because he shot up immediately and got her a blanket and pillow to lie down.  
" Tell me what happened." He said in a caring voice, wanting to be certain who did this to her so that he could go and give them a piece of his mind. Alex had always been protective of people he loved and he did love Jo, he had admitted it to Christina, only nights before. He was rather suprised that Jo hadn't asked him why he cared so much about what had happened to her, although he didn't want her to ask because he knew that it wasn't the right time to tell her, that she wasn't ready for him to tell her. Alex had it wrong alright, Jo felt the same way about him but with all that has happened she didn't want to admitt it to herself let alone to Alex.  
" Well we were fighting about..." she stopped suddenly, wanting to take back what she had just said.  
" What were you fighting about?" Alex questioned.  
"That doesn't matter," she had said like she was trying to hide something from him, " we were fighting and things were getting out of hand so i tried to tell him to calm down," she let out a sob but continued " he was so angry and he said ' don't you dare tell me what do! ' I was so scared when he raised his hand and he hit me..." she was overwhelmed with tears thinking about it, she just broke down. She was trying to control her tears because she didn't like showing other people what she was like at her worst, let alone show Alex.  
" Hey," he said trying to comfort him her " just breathe."  
" He hit me." she continued " I can't remember how many times, I can't even remeber what he hit me with, I just remeber that it was hard and long. " She paused for a minute before continuing. " Every time I close my eyes I see him pulling his hand behind his head getting ready to.." She stopped, she was surprised, Alex had taked her hand and was looking down at his feet. Jo heard something a sniff come from Alex, this made her very concerned for him.  
" Alex? Are you ok?" Jo asked.  
" Yea, I just can't bare to think about him hitting you." He replied " Did you say that he hit with something hard?" He ask now even more worried about her health.  
" Yea," she mumbled " I think it was a bat or something."  
" Where did he hit you?" he asked without pausing.  
" My stomach." She winced feeling pain. Alex thought he might have a heart attack at the rate his heart was beating.  
" Ok, Jo, I'm going to have to look and see if there is any bruising." He said before he pulled her top up to reveal her stomach. Alex was in tears now, her stomach had long bruises going across and it was very descended.  
Alex ran straight to the phone to call for an ambulance. Jo heard him speaking to the paramedics on the phone and she managed to say,  
" No, no doctor, I'm fine, everyone will see me, I don't want everyone to see me like this." before she passed out.  
The paramedics arived 7 minutes later, after Alex had called Meredith and warned her that he was coming in with Jo, he told her to clear a trauma room and be ready.


	2. Chapter 2

The Beating  
Chapter 2

* * *

"You're going to be alright," Alex said as he sat next to Jo in the ambulance "I'm here." Just seeing her like this was making Alex distraught, he didn't think he was going to be able to survive without her anymore.  
"We are a few minutes away from the hospital." Martin the paramedic said.  
"I know! I work there!" Alex said, angry about the situation, about how he didn't realise earlier how serious Jo's injuries are.  
"Sorry, I didn't know. Are you a doctor?"  
"Yes, I'm a freaking surgeon. And I didn't realise what was happening." Alex said, blaming himself for this.

* * *

They have arrived at the hospital and the gang is waiting for them outside, Meredith, Christina, Shepard and Ross. Jo is conscious as they begin to take her out of the ambulance. She pulls on Alex's arm to get his attention and it works, he looks down suddenly to see that she is awake.  
"Stop for a minute, will you?" He says to the paramedic. "What is it Jo?"  
"Wait, I don't want them to see me," she says barely conscious.  
"I don't care if you're to proud but you need them to take care of you, to make sure that you're ok," He replied looking straight into her eyes " because I need you to be alive, I can't live without you anymore, I love you, Jo." She just stared at him in shock, she couldn't get a word to come out of her mouth. She went unconscious again.  
"OK, we need to get her inside now!" The paramedic said, pulling her out of the ambulance. Alex couldn't believe what he had just said. Did he just tell Jo that he loved her? Meredith and Christina look at Jo in disbelief.  
"What happened to her?" They both ask simultaneously.  
"She has a very tender stomach, possibly internal bleeding, her stomach is very distended and she has been in and out of consciousness. We will need to get scans done to find exactly." Alex said very quickly, ushering them to hurry inside.  
"ALEX! What happened?" Meredith yelled at him, she had noticed that he avoided the question.  
"I tell you later, in private." He replied.

As they got her up to the trauma room, just about every nurse, intern and attending had spotted her and was curious what had happened.  
"Go away! Give her some privacy!" Meredith sort of screamed at everyone that had come to look. After that being said Christina closed the shut the blonds so no one could look in at her.

Jo was hooked up to all the machines and they could see that her blood pressure was extremely low. Everyone look worried now. Jo coded. Alex screamed at everyone, telling them what to do.  
"Someone get Alex out of here." Meredith said.  
"No I'm staying!" Alex said adamantly.  
"Come on," Christina grabbed at his arm and practically had to drag him out of the room.  
"Lets take her up to the O.R." Meredith said "Lets find out what going on."  
"I'm counting on you Meredith, don't you dare let her die." Alex yelled after her.

* * *

Meredith, Bailey and Murphy were scrubbing in when Bailey asked Meredith what happened to her.  
"I don't know, but looking at the bruises on her stomach, I'd say she was hit with some sort of bat."

"Oh my god," Meredith said, she had just cut Jo open, to find that there was masses of internal bleeding.  
"I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did without going unconscious." Bailey said, now wondering who did this to her. But she couldn't stop herself from asking  
"Who did this to her."  
"I have my suspicions." Meredith replied to Bailey's puzzled look. Meredith was of course right.  
"But I don't want to blame anyone until I'm sure." Just as she stopped talking, Jo coded on the table.

* * *

Alex was sitting under the O.R. Board waiting for someone to come out and tell him that Jo is going to be ok. The other interns kept asking him what had happened and it was beginning to get on his nerves, but then he began asking himself that very same question. He had knew who had done this the whole time. But he never thought he would take it to this level. Hitting her, the women that he loved, with a bat. He couldn't believe what he had done to her, he had gone way to far. Alex got up and left to go find Peckwell.  
"Wheres Myers?" Alex asked impatiently to the first nurse that he found. She shrugged her shoulders and he left immediately.

Alex was speeding in his car on his way to Peckwell's house, he wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do but he knew that it wasn't going to end well. He pulled up in his driveway, got out of the car and then banged on the door until it opened. Peckwell was standing there, like nothing had happened, like he hadn't beaten the crap out of Jo.  
"What?" Peckwell asked  
"What?" Alex said imitating Peckwell " what do you think?" Peckwell still didn't show any sign of weakness " where do you think Jo is right now?" Alex asked.  
"I dunno, at the hospital working, maybe."  
"Yea shes at the hospital but not working, shes in the O.R. being operated on. Why do you think that is?" Alex asked sarcastically.  
"Shit." Peckwell muttered, showing the first sign of acknowledging what he had done. Alex's phone started ringing and Christina's photo popped up, he answered.  
"Hey Christina."  
"I'm at Peckwells house." Alex said throwing an angry glance at him.  
"Ok, I will be right there." He hung up. "I've got to go, theres an update on Jo." He said turning around to leave but then Alex couldn't control himself, so he turned back around and smashed Peckwell once in the jaw and once in the socket of his eye, for good measure. He was knocked out.

* * *

"What did you do?" Christina asked suspiciously but her question was answered when she looked down at his hands, his knuckles were all cut and bruised.  
"I'm fine, you said there was and you said there was an update?" But she didn't need to reply, Meredith had just come out of the O.R. Her scrub cap was in her hands and she look at Alex as if she was going to tell him bad news.  
"Is she ok?"  
"She had a lot of internal bleeding, we had to replace all of her blood twice." Alex was holding back tears.  
"Shes dead, isn't she?" Alex asked  
"She coded twice on the table but we were able to get her back shes going to fine. She hasn't woken up yet but she is recovering in her room." Meredith explained.  
"You couldn't have led with that." Alex said with a grin on his face.

* * *

**Please review :) I am going to continue the story, not sure how many chapters its going to be but at least 2 more.**


	3. Chapter 3

**So sorry for the long wait for this chapter, it was school holidays and I had an assignment and other things to worry about. But never the less here it is and I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

**The Beating**

**Chapter 3**

Jo's eyes flickered open, a blurry dark blue shape emerging in front of her. She was recollecting the events of the past few days in her head and was overwhelmed by all the feelings that had found their way into her head. She was thinking about Jason, Stephanie, Alex and of course what all the other doctors at Grey+Sloan must be thinking of her. As she became fully conscience she realised that the shape in front of her was Meredith Grey.

"How are you feeling?" Dr. Grey asked trying to sound as compassionate as her past would allow her to be. "I'm fine." Dr. Grey had heard those words and used those words too many times to believe her but she decided to leave it because of what she was going to say next. "Jo, I don't want you to be worried but while you were in surgery we had to follow protocol and do some examinations," Meredith said pausing for a moment to allow Jo to fully understand what is being said to her. "when all abused patients are brought in, we must check to see if any other types of injuries are present." Jo now has an idea of where this is going. "Jo, we found evidence of sexual assault and rape."

This was worse than Jo had feared, everyone knew, everyone knew how weak she was, how she couldn't even protect herself from her boyfriend. After her initial worries had past, she remember about Alex. She remembered how caring he had been when he found her at his door, how much anger was in his eyes when she told him about her and Jason's fight. She had lost all of that now, how was Alex even going to look at her now, how was she going to look at him.

"Does he know?" Jo whispered, looking down at her hands not wanting to look into Dr. Grey's eyes. "No, Jo, no. I am the only one who knows, I did the exam and decided that you need some privacy so I kept it to myself, although, I had to perform a rape kit. As you know it is hospital policy to inform the police when a rape kit is processed and to give the evidence to them." Dr. Grey stopped talking, trying to put words together in a sentence.

"The police will be coming by and asking you a series of questions so they can make an arrest."  
"No, no, this cannot be happening, this cannot be happening." Jo was refusing to believe it. Her thoughts were interrupted when there was a knock at the door. It was Alex. She couldn't look at him, she couldn't let him see her like this, so vulnerable. Dr. Grey noticed this and proceeded to pull Alex by his sleeve out into the corridor.

Jo could see that Alex looked confused as to why she wasn't looking at him, after Dr. Grey dragged him outside she could no longer hear them but she could see them talking through a slight opening in the curtains.

* * *

"What?" Alex asked, confused spas to why he was rushed out of the room so fast.  
"She just woke up, she just a bit flustered."  
"Why is she flustered? Did something go wrong in the surgery that you didn't see before? Is she going to to be okay?"  
"Shes going to be fine and as for the other thing I'm not at liberty to say, she must tell you herself." Confusion and concern was taking over inside Alex's head, he had to find out what was wrong. "Can I see her, please?" Dr. Grey could tell that he was serious because he had said please and its not very often that you hear those word come out of his mouth. She retreated back inside the room, when she came out she left the door open and gestured for him to enter "She said yes." And with that Dr. Grey left them and went off to get the results of the rape kit and direct the police to her room when Jo was ready for them.

* * *

"Hey." Was all Alex could say as he stood in the doorway to her room. She still couldn't bring herself to look at him and he noticed that, walking over to the chair and sitting down next to the bed, he extended his arm and let his hand fall into hers, interlocking their fingers. "Look at me Jo." When she still didn't look up he took his other hand and put it. underneath her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"I want you to know that you can talk to me, about anything, day or night. I'll try to understand as best as I can and help you through whatever it is. Ok?"  
"Alex," Jo said using all of her strength not to break down in front of him "he...he raped me." Was all she could say before pulling her head and hand away from him and turning to look away from him.  
"Jo, look at me."  
"I can't," she said so quietly it was almost inaudible, "I can't look at you because you'll look at me like I'm broken. You'll look at me like I'm disgusting."  
"I would never see you that way Jo, after all I know about your past and what you have been through to get here today, I could only ever see you as a survivor, as the strong, independent woman that I fell in love with and this makes me see you as a fighter. Yes, you'll have scars, physical and mental, but I want to be there for all of it, I want to help you get through all this." Alex was surprised with what he had just said, it had all just sort of slipped out of his mouth.

A tear fell from Jo's eyes as she processed all of what had been said, five words were repeating in her head, I fell in love with. It was all she could think about, those five little words.

"Can you stay when the police come, I don't think I can do it by myself."  
"Of course I'll stay Jo."  
"Thank you. Also, please, can you not tell anyone I want to tell people when I'm ready."  
"But Jo, they will see the police come in," he said without thinking but immediately regretted saying it because he saw her face drop in disappointment, "I could tell everyone that they were just asking routine questions about the other attack." He suggested quickly trying to make up for his slip moments ago.

Just then Dr. Grey knocked and proceeded to walk up to the other side of her bed holding a bit of paper. Dr. Grey was unsure whether or not she had informed Alex about what had happened so she looked from Jo to Alex to the paper in her hands.

"Its alright Dr. Grey, he knows."  
"Meredith." she corrects her.  
"Meredith." Jo says repeating it.  
"I have the results here of the rape kit," Meredith says. Alex takes Jo's hand getting ready to comfort her. "It came back positive and the DNA we retrieved was a match with a sample from Dr. Myers." Meredith stopped for a minute and then continued. "The police are waiting outside as well. Is now a good time for them to ask you some questions?"  
"Sure." And with that Meredith left the room and 2 people then entered, they were wearing plain clothes and no uniform. Thank god Jo said to herself, at least no one would be asking why there are officers in her room.

"Hello, Josephine," One of them said "I'm Detective Bill Wright and this is my partner Detective Paul Johnson." Bill said strongly.  
"Jo." She corrected him, she didn't like the use of her full name.  
"Okay, Jo. We are going to ask you some questions about what happened, would you prefer to be alone or for..." "Alex" Alex filled in. "or for Alex to stay?"


	4. Chapter 4

**The Beating**  
**Chapter 4**

"He can stay." Jo said to the officers.

"Ok then, lets start." Jo was beginning to get a little nervous, obviously Alex had noticed her breath becoming more laboured so he squeezed her hand to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. "Jo, who was it that attacked you?" Bill asked while Paul sat in the corner with a note book, recording the questions and answers on paper for the evidence packet.

"My boyfriend." Jo quickly added "Jason Myers." After she noticed the officer look towards Alex in obvious confusion.

"Okay, do you know what sparked the attack?"

"We were arguing." She said, deliberately not being specific. Jo was hoping they where not going to continue down that line of questioning because she didn't want to reveal, with Alex in the room, what they were arguing about.

"And why is it that you were arguing?" Shit, Jo thought as he asked the question, now she would have to answer. Before saying anything she looked over at Alex, surprised to find him looking into her eyes and not at the wall, she was trying to communicate with him through her eyes. "This is not your fault." Is what she was trying to get at but her attempts had been unsuccessful so she turned back towards the officer, taking a breath before starting.

"He...he thought that I was in love with another man," she felt her hand being squeezed even more after that line. Jo was unsure whether she should continue, she didn't want to hurt Alex even more but she did never the less, "he confronted me about it when my shift was over and everyone was on their way home. He started yelling when he thought we were alone, he was going on about how I was never going to be with Ale...the other guy," just then Jo realised that she had just slipped, she was sure she could feel Alex's eyes on hers but she didn't want to look. "When I started to say that he was wrong and that I only...had feelings for him was when he started getting violent. He slapped me, I told him we should leave and go back to his place because at this point we were still in the parking lot." She was going to continue but Bill got in a question first.

"If you don't mind, I am unclear on why he thought you were in love with another man."

"Why do you need to know?" Jo almost spat out, she couldn't control her reaction fast enough.

"It would be beneficial for the case if we had a solid motive for the suspect. I'm sorry, I understand that you've been through a lot but answering my questions would only help the case."

"Sorry, umm well me and the other guy, were at a bit of a rough patch because Jason had asked me to move in with him and I said yes. The other guy didn't react very well when I told him about it."

"Who is this other guy? He might know something about it or maybe Jason confronted him?" Jo didn't need to say anything, she just turned her head and looked at Alex, who was now looking down at the bed. She pulled her hand away from Alex's and gently caressed his cheek, this action caused Alex to look up. He was staring into Jo's eyes when he said,

"Its me." He said confidently without taking his eyes away from hers. "No he never confronted me about anything." He had finished talking but then he remembered something. "But, we did talk a few nights ago."

"What were you talking about?" Bill asked.

"He just wanted clear the air, so to speak, we had gotten off on a bad start because of the whole...Jo thing. I said that I just wanted what was best for her and if she thought it was him then I wouldn't try to stop her." Alex said to answer the question.

"Ok, Jo, these are going to be the harder questions." Bill said calmly waiting for her to respond, when she nodded slightly he continued. "Can you please tell us what happened when you got home?"

"Well when we got home we were still fighting, but it was worse, now we were home alone and not in public he was more aggressive. As soon as wen walked in house he slammed the door and push me against the wall." Jo was crying now, and not he fake tears she sometimes shed to get into surgeries but the real ones. "He forced his..mouth onto mine and started at my clothing." She had to stop for a while because it was all becoming to much for her. She looked over to Alex for support, his eyes cold and full with anger, he had pulled away from her now and was standing up.

"Excuse me." Was all he said before leaving the room. He couldn't listen to the woman he loved explain in detail how her boyfriend raped her because of him. He just couldn't, he had to get some fresh air.

* * *

When Alex came back into the room, Jo was sleeping, both of the officers were gone. And she looked peaceful. He walked to her bedside, took her hand within his, kissed it said

"I love you." One thing that Alex didn't know was that Jo was never asleep, she was faking it because she didn't know what to say to Alex, she didn't know how he was going to react to what he had heard in the interview.

Alex slowly sat down in the chair beside her bed and laid his head down on her bed, and fell asleep, her hand still consumed by his. He was exhausted after their long day and just wanted it all to be over.

When Jo heard his breathing even out and she knew he was asleep, she whispered

"I love you too."


End file.
